IUA/UCF encourages direct donations to beneficiaries

JORDAN MOSHE

From now on, there will be greater onus on community organisations, including the Community Security Organisation (CSO) and the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), to manage their own respective fundraising campaigns.

In a statement released earlier this month, the CSO brought the restructuring to the attention of its donors. CSO spokesperson, Dr Brad Gelbart said that the IUA/UCF would no longer proactively seek donations on behalf of its beneficiaries. However, all donations being made to the IUA/UCF would continue to be transferred to the existing beneficiaries in the same proportion as previous years.

“The CSO has been raising funds through its own small fundraising team, but it will now need to pick up the shortfall as needed. We are grateful to the team at the IUA/UCF for their efforts over the years.”

Until the end of 2018, the umbrella body accepted donations from the public and distributed them among its various beneficiaries. These include the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), the CSO, the South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS), the SAZF, and the Israel Centre. However, after extensive consultations with its donor base, the organisation has restructured its operations to allow for donations to be given directly to a beneficiary of the donor’s choice.

According to a statement put out by the IUA/UCF last month, the SAJBD, SAZF, and CSO have established their own fundraising departments, and will be approaching donors directly to meet their individual fundraising requirements.

Until now, student bodies such as SAUJS have received a grant directly from the IUA/UCF. While the grant will continue to be paid, it will cover only administrative expenses, and any shortfall will be covered by the SAJBD as part of its budget.

The President of the IUA/UCF, Avrom Krengel, said that the organisation would maintain a certain capacity to assist with fundraising, including processing monthly debit orders. “This new structure will allow us to be more transparent and cost effective, and better meet the needs of our donors and beneficiaries. There are different models used to raise funding. It helps to have different mechanisms in place to process the receipt of donations.”

He continued, “For the past decade, the Jewish community of Johannesburg has been able to give directly to an increasing number of organisations, including King David and the Chevrah Kadisha. Alongside these individual channels, they could donate through the IUA-UCF, the last umbrella body used for this purpose. Given the momentum of direct donations, it made sense to enable donors to give directly to beneficiaries.”

The response from the community has been positive, Krengel said, with people happy to give directly to their organisation of choice, or continue to transact via the IUA/UCF. “The new mechanism enables the organisations to raise more funding than before,” he said. “Moreover, the IUA/UCF will no longer shoulder the costs incurred by processing donations.”